Friday , April 19, 2024

John Stewart

Starting as an editor on Bank Network News at Faulkner & Gray, John ultimately played a key role in starting, editing, and publishing many of F&G's flagship publications, including Credit Card Management, Card Technology, Card Marketing, and Collections & Credit Risk. Before co-founding Boland Hill Media, John was a group publisher at Thomson Media responsible for a $10 million division embracing magazines, newsletters, and Web sites.

The New Global Payments Looks to Value to Offset Impending Visa Rate Changes

News of impending interchange-rate revisions from Visa Inc. may have roiled the payments industry, but for processing giants like Global Payments Inc., the impact will simply be business as usual. Top Global executives made that point crystal clear Wednesday. “We see these [rate changes] all the time. We have to accommodate …

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RILA Calls for Action on the Fed’s Debit Cap As Powell Testifies Before Congress

Federal Reserve Board chairman Jerome Powell is testifying before Congress this week, and mixed in with questions and answers about interest rates, economic growth, and employment could be queries about when the Fed is going to update its cap on the fees issuers can charge for debit card transactions. At …

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Washington’s ‘Vitriolic’ Mood Isn’t Slowing the March of Major Regulation Affecting Payments

There’s plenty of proposed legislation affecting the payments business just now, and casting a long shadow over all of it is the present atmosphere of partisanship. “The mood in Washington is vitriolic, childish. It’s all-out war,” said Scott Talbott, senior vice president of government relations for the Electronic Transactions Association, …

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Surcharging Is Poised to Gain Momentum As State Bans Fall And Acquirers Spot Opportunities

Surcharges on credit card transactions could pick up momentum now that only four states effectively ban the practice, a panel of experts indicated Wednesday at a merchant-acquiring trade show. That momentum may benefit not only merchants wary of card-acceptance costs but also merchant-service providers that focus on surcharging as a …

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Fiserv Tugs the Curtain Back a Bit on Early Gains From Its Big First Data Acquisition

Six months after closing on its $22 billion acquisition of First Data Corp., Fiserv Inc. on Tuesday dropped some tantalizing hints about early benefits the deal has generated for the combined company. First Data’s Clover app-based platform for merchant checkouts, for example, saw its gross payment volume grow fully 40% …

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How the Onset of 5G Could Become a Winning Bet for Mobile Wagering And Payments

One often overlooked market for mobile payments is sports betting, and now some payments providers are wagering that the segment is about to get hot with the ongoing rollout of 5G mobile-network connectivity. “We would urge sports-betting operators to be ready for the increased traffic on their platforms. It’s a …

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POS Terminal Kingpin Ingenico Agrees To Be Acquired by Worldline in an $8.6 Billion Deal

The mega mergers aren’t over yet. In a global move with potentially major implications for the U.S. payments market, Ingenico Group S.A. said it has agreed to be acquired by Worldline S.A. for cash and stock consideration totaling approximately $8.6 billion. The transaction, expected to close in the third quarter, …

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In Canada, Fast-Growing Debit Gets Further Impetus Via a New Rule That Opens More Acceptance Venues

A new rule took effect this week in Canada that is expected to enable more debit card transactions by opening up venues such as buses, trains, parking meters, and vending machines for acceptance.  The regulation, called Rule E5, comes from Payments Canada, the country’s clearing-and-settlement operator, and amends a prior …

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Visa Will Be the Network for the New Venmo Card As PayPal Gets Set for Growth in China

News emerged Wednesday from PayPal Holdings Inc.’s earnings call that Visa Inc. will serve as the network for a Venmo credit card PayPal announced in October. This development follows by one week PayPal’s announcement that it has struck a deal with UnionPay, China’s payment card giant, to integrate UnionPay cards …

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A Service Emerges to Let Online Users Gain Fast Access to Limited Content Via Digital Wallets

Digital solutions for very small payments were a hot topic a decade ago, but now the subject is making a comeback in the publishing business, where a slide in print advertising and other revenue sources is pushing publishers to seek new business in digital access. This week, Piano Software Inc., …

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Digital Transactions